Shocking Find: Remains of Vanished Mother and Child Found in Freezing Units in Austria
The deceased of a mother aged 34 and her young daughter, 10 have been located inside freezers in an apartment in western Austria.
The victims, a Syrian woman and her child, who had been unaccounted for for several months, were found on the end of last week. The cooling units were hidden behind a plasterboard wall in the dwelling, located in the Innsbruck area.
Two individuals, a Austrian man, 55 and his 53-year-old brother, were detained in the month of June. The older man, a work associate of the Syrian woman, told police last week that there had been an unfortunate event—but rejected homicide.
Informing the media earlier, a representative for the state prosecutor announced the pair were being kept in custody on "strong suspicion of murder".
Personal details of those implicated have been withheld by law enforcement, in compliance with national regulations.
The vanishing of the mother and child was originally brought to light by the female victim's relative, who resides in Germany, on the 25th of July last year.
Authorities stated the 55-year-old suspect told them at the time she had embarked on an extended trip with her child to see her family in the nation of Turkey.
The mother's debit card was then noted as being active in foreign locations several times.
However when officers searched the mother's apartment, her smartphone was discovered.
An individual also stated hearing a loud noise in the apartment, and shouts of "mum" on the day the pair were thought to have disappeared.
An expanded police investigation was started, with investigators finding several texts originating from the mother's device—among them a job termination message to her employer and communications to the 55-year-old suspect.
Law enforcement confirmed a amount in the thousands was also transferred to the individual.
Katja Tersch stated to media representatives on recently that a storage unit had been secured before the mother and child went missing and a freezer had been installed within.
The male siblings removed the freezer from the unit on the very day the mother and daughter disappeared, Tersch said. And a shortly afterward, they obtained an additional appliance.
Investigators state they believe this indicates the deaths were premeditated.
"The cause of death was not identifiable due to the state of decomposition of the remains," Tersch commented.
The prosecutor's spokesman—from the legal authorities—noted the specific order of occurrences is not yet known, but the bodies were expertly concealed and not discovered during a earlier inspection.
Although the men were taken into custody in June, it was not until November 12 that the suspect confessed to an event and to concealing the remains. He denies any intent to kill, investigators confirmed.
At the same time, his brother acknowledged a concealment but disputed involvement in a murder.
The brothers are presently in pre-trial detention in detention centers in two Austrian cities, around 117 miles (189km) apart.
Through a combined announcement, the nation's official for women's affairs and the top legal representative declared the "suspected killing of two... constitutes the abrupt and violent termination of two individuals and reveals a brutal scheme".
"Women and girls are being murdered due to the mere fact that they are women and girls," they continued.
"Murders of women are a strongly established and widespread concern that we must combat firmly."